The present invention relates to devices for lifting fallen invalids or those who, because of arthritis or the like, cannot fully lift themselves although they may be able to walk with the aid of a walker or the like and, in particular, to a lifting device for use in the home and in conjunction with a conventional walker.
Elderly or disabled persons who can walk with some aid from another or with help from devices such as canes and walkers sometimes accidentally fall and do not always have sufficient strength or balance to be able to raise from a prone position on the floor to a sitting or standing position. Sometimes such persons fall at home where the only other persons readily available are of insufficient strength to lift the fallen person. In many such cases, the only person available to assist the fallen person is an elderly spouse, weakened by age, arthritis or the like, but capable of lifting the fallen spouse with a lifting device providing sufficient mechanical advantage is available.
Lifting devices incorporating mechanical advantage for use in hospitals and other institutions are in existence. However, for several reasons, the available lifting devices are not adaptable for use in the home. One reason is the construction and size of the devices used in hospitals. Hospital devices are generally designed to be used in buildings with wide doorways and spaces between furniture. As such, the size, shape and overall construction of such devices prevents easy transference from room to room in a house without disassembly. Hospital type devices are often very cumbersome and there is normally insufficient space in a small house or apartment for storage thereof, nor can many persons afford the costly hospital devices.
Further, the hospital type devices currently in use are not intended for lifting fallen partial invalids. In particular, hospital lifting devices can be generally divided into two categories: those for transferring patients between a bed and a gurney and those for lifting and supporting a portion of the patient's weight while walking. Neither category is particularly adaptable for lifting persons who have fallen to the floor. Finally, the degree of mechanical advantage generally incorporated into devices used in hospitals is not sufficient to enable an elderly person to help lift a person's weight as those devices are intended to be used by hospital personnel.
One other type of invalid lifter in use, also by hospitals, is intended for use in cooperation with a bed so as to raise an invalid to a sitting position from a supine position. This category of lifters have similar shortcomings to the above-mentioned devices when applied to the purpose of the present invention. Namely, the devices for use with beds are not designed to lift persons from the floor and are generally too large and expensive to be used in the home.
It is noted that invalid lifters for use with wheelchairs are also presently in use. Such wheelchair lifters are generally for use by a wheelchair user who has arm strength, but who has lost the use of their legs. With the wheelchair lifter, the fallen person folds out a seat from storage beneath the wheelchair, positions him or herself on the seat, pulls out a pair of handles, and operates the handles to lift him or herself. Limitations of the wheelchair device with respect to the scope of the present invention include: the requirement of a wheelchair; the limited mobility of wheelchairs in close spaces; and that the fallen person must have sufficient arm strength to operate the device.